Phrases you hate...

Stop titling books The End of something

"no homo" always bugs me.

yeah i'd probably never hang out with someone who would actually say that, but the Lonely Island song on that is really funny

.. going forward.

I'm not sure how you're hearing it used, but to me it's just a common phrase synonymous with "from now on" but without the slightly commanding tone. Or interchangeable with "in the future," which I don't love b/c in my head I always imagine I'm talking about the far, far Future.

"let's take this offline"

Something McSomethingson. ugh.

"going forward" vs "in future"

Something McSomethingson. ugh.

^ yeah, this is the fucking worst, nappy mcnapperson or whatever. go die.

I basically say many of these all day at my job.

AWESOME SAUCE!!

"let's take this offline"

― Poliopolice, Friday, May 4, 2012 1:08 PM (22 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i wish this was *something else* but i can't hate because in the workplace it's a v. useful phrase

I try not to hate on cliches too much. They are like short circuits or reflex actions in the language center of your brain. Most people can't help it. Moreover, most of them were, at birth, quite fresh and creative coinages. That is why they became memes.

So, please, do not go postal or get medieval on someone's ass when you hear them. They are innocent, playful sprites of language that were captured and enslaved, until they became the misshapen, joyless monsters you are familiar with today. Pity them.

"madder than a box of frogs"

I like that one!

Most frogs I am familiar with, when they are placed en masse into a box, will only evince a certain desperation to escape.

if that

AWESOME SAUCE!!

o god yes, so horrible. also "the awesome", "the (new) hotness", etc.

IN THE FACE!!

"degree of difficulty"

basically when NBA announcers say "the degree of difficulty of that shot!" when they just mean "difficult shot!"

not a phrase properly but the way people end their posts with an unpunctuated "so" is so cringe-inducing. but there's not anything I can really do about it so

people launching their post with a ponderous chin-stroking 'hmmm'.

the way people end their posts with an unpunctuated "so" is so cringe-inducing

hmmm. do that all the time.

Me too, so

An I'm guilty of hmmmm as well

'My take on it is...'

'Here's the deal...' (and also 'Here's the thing...')

'Stupid o'clock'

I say a lot of the things in this thread - I'm a nervous talker and I guess I'm not bright enough to come up with something better to say.

"hate on"

so much more accurate and fun to write "hate"

"do what?" as a response to something not heard well, like "excuse me?" or "pardon?" if i wanted you to do something then maaaaybe it would make a bit of snese but it signifies inappropriate fealty & hence sounds dumb.

man I am a huge defender of "hate on," one of my favorite terms to have come into use during my lifetime. Do not hate on "hate on," Alfred. It expresses something different from hate. Hate is something I have in my heart, something I feel. Hate on is something I do. Genuine & useful difference.

I once had a boss, during my worst summer job, who would say "Money!" and "That's money."

"do what?" as a response to something not heard well, like "excuse me?" or "pardon?" if i wanted you to do something then maaaaybe it would make a bit of snese but it signifies inappropriate fealty & hence sounds dumb.

I don't deal nicely with mumbling and low volume. I either pretend the person hasn't spoken or I say "speak louder." Once or twice I've gone as far as "speak louder or don't speak." (Never that to my family though.)

few of these bother me as spoken; most of these bother me when written. it's not colloquialized langauge, it's mostly just lazzzy

xpost to self, way to come across as the biggest jackass on the planet, ughh...

xp I was recently looking through some 1969-70 Esquires for work and boy did they love variations on "Portrait of the x as a y"

"Methinks" is worse than war crimes. Someone complains about this in Huxley's Crome Yellow so it was irritating people as far back as 1921.

"Hmmm" is v useful in online discourse, especially Twitter. It basically says "I completely disagree with what you just said but I don't want to be a dick about it so I'll pretend I'm giving it some thought."

The same person at work who says "What say you" in emails, also says "Methinks". In emails.

TBF, "Hmmm" is usually kind of a passive-aggressive dick move. I doubt many people would interpret it as an indicator of a genuine pause for thoughtful reflection.

aero, when I hate believe me I do it.

academic version of the overdone 'Portrait of the X as a Y' thing is '______ and its Discontents'.

^^^ yes

"prose stylist"/"prose stylings"

"she'll break a lot of hearts someday"

I pretty much interpret it as, "your daughter is so pretty, men will soon be weeping over her, fighting over her, probably even killing themselves over her, so you'd better get used to it." blecch.

why not interpret it as, "she'll be a successful but somewhat butter-fingered cardiac surgeon"? i guess it's still a back-handed compliment.

or work in a glass factory making heart-shaped glass ornaments

or 'she'll be a good card player, eventually'

"she'll break a lot of balls, some day"

"her relationships in later life will be unfulfilling and disappointing because of her superficial beauty and the unrealistic expectations placed upon her by admirers"

"she will eat many artichokes"

haha remy

"her relationships in later life will be unfulfilling and disappointing because of her superficial beauty and the unrealistic expectations placed upon her by admirers"

exactly. I guess I'm butthurt at the implication that it's a girl's destiny to be a passive, unintentional influence on guys' feelings, but it's more the idea than the wording that annoys me. "she'll break a lot of sharts someday" would be almost liberating by comparison.